Unity Arc

Chapter 34

Monsters

~I~

"Your diagram is coming along nicely," Miranda said. She leaned back into Shepard's couch as the structure rotated over the coffee table.

"The base itself is nearly complete. I still haven't found any memories inside the core. Most of the infrastructure is designed to feed whatever is inside. And there's something else."

"What's that, Shepard?"

Shepard zoomed the view out until the hologram displayed the debris field. "All this is what's left of every ship that's ever attempted to pass through the Omega-4 relay. They're shredded and the remains end up trapped in the base's mass effect fields."

"There's thousands, tens of thousands. This must be where they get their raw material."

"Look closer. How many ship types can you recognize?"

"Almost none."

"Exactly, not even prothean. This base existed before the Collectors going back hundreds of cycles. The Reapers must use this as a secondary staging ground during a harvest. I suspect they might replace the husks maintaining it every cycle as their genetic code deteriorates.

"Joker should find this useful. Provided Uzumaki's seal hides our gravity signature, if we can stay behind the debris field they won't know we're there until we're within visual range."

"It won't be that simple."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been getting better at scavenging the artifact. I can locate memories based on general location and time. This let me focus on more recent memories for a more accurate picture. I found something happening in the debris field beginning twenty-nine Earth months ago."

"That's right after Sovereign's attack on the Citadel. What is it?"

"Look at this." Shepard focused on a single part of the debris field a fraction the size of the Collector base. "Tell me what that looks like."

"It looks like a...oh god. Oh god, it's a shipyard."

"An active one, it was just completed two years ago. The Collectors have begun cannibalizing scrap vessels and building their own warships. They're building all manner of ship classes there, so far I count forty-six frigates, eighteen cruisers, seven dreadnoughts, and two larger ships that we don't have a class for. Only a few were space-worthy as of the latest memory, but they'll have finished more by now."

"They're using Reaper tech, meaning they'll outgun every ship in their classes. The Collectors must be preparing for war. But for what? Are they planning to attack the Citadel again?"

"That's my hypothesis. They'll use this fleet to take back their prime relay and begin their assault, just like how they tried with Saren."

"How can they be building them so fast? If they didn't have the infrastructure in place already, they shouldn't be able to build this quickly."

"I figured that out as well. Remember those crevices we saw on the cruiser? The ones filled with rejected colonists? The Collectors are turning them into husks for manual labor, their shipyard is swarming with millions of them."

"You say they're the rejects. What about the colonists in pods?"

"Those get broken down and pumped to the core. Whatever happens after, I don't know."

"And you're going to keep looking for it?"

"It's in there somewhere, I will find it. I just need more time."

"Shepard, you look tired. You may think you're hiding it well, but you're not."

"Miranda, a little exhaustion isn't going to-"

"Four hours of sleep on average for the past month."

"Still relying on bugs?"

"No, on EDI."

Shepard paused and swallowed his shock, "In the marines, we did plenty with less."

"Only when you had to. We need you at your best, Shepard."

"And I won't be without the best intelligence. We need this, Miranda. Look at what it's given us already. I'm getting close, I can feel it."

Miranda stared him down, but he silently reminded her of her promise to respect his command and she relented, "Dammit Shepard, you're going to get yourself killed. Again."

"Why do you think I keep you around?"

Miranda mulled on this and bowed her head, "I won't see you fall apart, Shepard. I won't allow it."

"That's why I read you into this one. But I need to finish what I've started."

"Just don't finish yourself off too. I'll be watching you."

There was a loud beating on the door. Shepard asked, "EDI, who is it?"

"Zaeed has come to see you. It appears to be urgent."

"Why didn't you alert us?"

"It would be rude to interrupt."

And letting him smash his door was any better? Was this one of her jokes? He said, "Let him in."

The door opened and Zaeed stormed inside so quickly Shepard could have mistaken it for a mutiny. He motioned to a file open on his omni-tool and said, "You got this?"

"I did."

"Then why the fuck are we still going to Pragia?"

Miranda said, "The Illusive Man's message only states that he's found a broker with their location, he hasn't secured it yet."

"Then tell him to hurry it up!"

"I can assure you The Illusive Man is making all arrangements as expediently as the seller allows. All funds and information should be exchanged within a few days. He's overseeing the transaction personally. You'll get what you want."

"Twenty years. I have been searching for twenty fucking years!"

Shepard said, "And your search is nearly over, we're going to see to that."

"We should at least be by a core relay. We could be ready, every seconds counts!"

Miranda said, "You don't chart the Normandy, or have you forgotten our arrangement?"

Zaeed looked murderous, "I'll show you where to chart-"

Shepard said warningly, "Massani, if I have to make a brig to throw you in it, I will." He waited as solid as if he were built into the Normandy itself, and waited for Zaeed to catch himself. "I've agreed to get you where you need to go as soon as I reasonably can in exchange for your services. I know the details of our deal and I plan on keeping to it. Or did you come here to re-negotiate our arrangement?"

Zaeed looked ready to challenge Shepard, but there was a reason he always got out of his jobs alive. He possessed a keen sense of when to push and when to withdraw, and he knew that now was not the time to push Shepard, not when he was this close. He recovered himself and said, "That was unprofessional, not what your Illusive Man paid for. It won't happen again."

"I'm sure. We'll get her back, Zaeed. I assure you."

Zaeed nodded, "Commander. Lawson."

They waited until Zaeed left and Miranda said, "You shouldn't let him get away with acting like that."

"He's a desperate man, in the same situation, even you might do the same."

Miranda watched him closely and said, "No way to know, is there." She got up and said, "If you're going to insist on pursuing this, I'm going to keep monitoring you."

"I never assumed you'd stop. I think we have enough to share with the team."

"I agree, let's prepare a briefing later. I'm going to see Uzumaki. Want to join me?"

"Good idea, let's go check on his progress. You go ahead and I'll follow once I finish up here."

He stored the diagram and watched the doors close behind Miranda, then he said, "You gave her my sleeping habits?"

"Operative Lawson requested them."

"I asked you to cover for me."

"You also gave me freedom to ignore that request."

"EDI, I'm-"

"Fine? No John, you are not."

"I haven't lost my edge. If this began impacting my performance in the field, or even on the Normandy I would notice."

"Have you noticed that you've lost two kilograms? You're cutting back on everything to make time for memory dives. You're obsessed, and I'm worried it's going to hurt you."

"EDI, what are we calling this mission?"

"Cerberus's official codename for the mission is Operation: Human Shield."

"Wrong. What do we call it on the Normandy?"

"The Suicide Mission."

"Nobody expects to walk away from this one, even the most brazen of us know chances of survival are low. But they're here regardless. So I owe it to them to do everything I can to increase those odds. If this is the cost, I'll pay it happily. This is for everyone." Shepard paused, "That includes you."

"John, don't sacrifice yourself like this."

"You think Miranda can put me back together again?"

"I'm sure she would try. She loves you."

Shepard blinked, "What?"

"Operative Lawson loves you."

"I...I had no idea."

"Forgive me, I did not mean to reply she possessed romantic interest."

"What else could you have meant?"

"Only that she cares for your health and safety in an intimate manner."

"She did dedicate two years of her life putting me back together, I imagine she'd want to protect her investment."

EDI was silent for a long moment. Shepard asked, "EDI?"

"Operative Lawson's dossier had one paragraph redacted regarding her health."

"Who removed it?"

"Operative Lawson."

"Don't tell me, she deserves her privacy."

"I violated yours for her, and regardless The Illusive Man intended for you to see this."

He sighed, "Okay, what is it?"

"Operative Lawson is infertile. She has sought sterility treatment from multiple specialists without success."

"I...had no idea."

"This is only speculation, I was not privy to all Project Lazarus data, but I imagine that years spent caring for you, constructing you, and protecting you led Operative Lawson to consider you...hers."

And suddenly all those times Miranda reminded him about his nutrition standards, warned him about too much strain, or came to check on him just to make sure his body had settled, took on new meaning. She really was protecting her investment. Like all mothers do. Even adoptive ones.

He rubbed his warming neck and said, "When I woke up I felt this gap in my memory. The last thing I can remember, I see the escape pods flying away and then...I remember nothing, a long nothing, it could have been months or years...it felt like more. And through all that, she and her team dedicated years of their lives to rebuild me. I can't begin to imagine what that must have been like. I just thought, I never asked her why she did it. Why any of them did it. If it were easy, I could understand...but they gave so much. Was it just for what I was, or something else?"

"So ask her, or don't. Just don't ever say we don't have a right to care about you, too."

Shepard said, "I won't. Thank you, EDI." He stood and continued, "I should go, Miranda will be waiting."

"Take care, John."

"Talk to you later."

He rode the elevator to engineering and stepped out to find Miranda waiting against the hallway window. Her eyes were piercing as if she were trying to check his internals for signs of good health. How long had he kept her focus? Did she ever get tired of it?

"Took you long enough," she chided.

"As long as I needed. Let's head in."

They opened the door to engineering and immediately covered their ears as they were assaulted by a chorus of knives carving through glass. Tali saw the door open and killed the buzzsaw before running over, "Are you alright?"

Shepard cautiously opened his ears and heard a slight ringing. "What are you doing?"

Tali pointed to her set-up, a few worktables had been taken out of storage and were covered in cut piping. "I told you earlier how I figured out a way to improve the heat dispersal network for the Normandy's stealth system. You gave me the go-ahead to try it. But we didn't have the right segments of pipes, so we're making them with what we have in inventory."

Miranda asked, "Why didn't you just submit a requisitions request?"

Tali looked confused, "Why? We had plenty of parts taking up storage space."

Gabby hefted another pipe onto the welding bench, "It'd save us all this labor, for starters."

Tali said, "Quit complaining, you have enough downtime as it is."

Shepard said, "Miranda's right, we have plenty of credits to spend on upgrades."

"If you're worried about the quality, I assure you these welds will be as good as anything straight from the factory."

"That's not what I mean. You always keep engineering under budget. You can afford some shortcuts."

Tali listened and responded irritably, "It's wasteful."

"Not if we count them as spares. You don't have those in the fleet?"

"A few essentials, otherwise not normally. Everything gets used."

"Try doing it our way for a while, maybe you'll like it. Next time I want you to talk to us about getting engineering the parts they need."

Ken brought his hands up in prayer and thanked God.

Tali said, "Alright Shepard, but we're over halfway done so we might as well finish."

"It's your department, run it as you see fit. Just keep what we said in mind." Shepard looked to the core and saw the door was shut. "Is Naruto back there?"

Tali shrugged, "Should be."

"Why is the door closed?"

"I...asked him to."

"Why?"

Tali hesitated, then asked, "Can I speak with you two privately?"

Shepard nodded and they headed for the corner of engineering away from Ken and Gabby as the pair went back to work. Miranda asked, "Has something happened?"

"Naruto's been working in there for two days, but yesterday he came out frustrated. I asked him what was going on and he said he needed Legion. He brought it back and, well, they started working together." She looked to the core and said, "I didn't like looking at it. How long are you going to keep that thing on board?"

Shepard said, "I thought we already had this discussion. What changed?"

"With me? Nothing. What's changed with you? Have you forgotten everything the Geth have done? How they helped Saren try to bring back the Reapers?"

"Legion claims that's a small faction that followed Sovereign."

"It claims, it doesn't have proof. But I do. I've led teams into the Perseus Veil and we've never found any peaceful Geth. And even if there are, it was one Geth that committed genocide against my people. Their society was born by wiping out organics. It was a conscious decision of every Geth in the collective, and they are all responsible. Even Legion."

"So what are you suggesting, Tali?"

"I think it might be a spy."

Miranda said, "Legion told us as much already."

"He told you he's here to observe organics. But for what? Why else would they suddenly be interested in studying us if not for the Reapers? I know it claims it's interested in you because you helped defeat Sovereign, and that might be true, but that doesn't mean it's on our side."

Shepard said, "So you're accusing Legion of spying for the Reapers?"

Tali raised a finger, paused to consider her words, and said, "No, no I'm not."

"Good, because given all the opportunities Legion's had to undermine us, which it has never done, I'd be more than skeptical."

"But you have to admit it's possible-"

Miranda covered her face, "Tali, Don't."

"It found Naruto on the cruiser-"

"And saved him-"

"But how did it know? By chance? The odds are astronomical even if it was tracking you, it could be-"

Shepard held up a hand and everyone stopped, "Enough. I understand your concerns, but I don't share them. Legion has earned its place on the Normandy and will not be dismissed."

"But Shepard-"

"I give everyone I meet a chance. So far Legion has never made me doubt my decision. If I suspected it might be in any way involved with the Reapers, I would never have let it guard us while we entered Naruto's conscious. We were down for thirty-seven minutes and Legion could have slit all our throats if it wanted. But it didn't. Legion's earned my trust. And I understand your reasons for not wanting to, but I think you should try as well. I thought you of everyone here could pity anyone the rest of the galaxy tried to ignore."

That last point hit Tali personally, but it didn't break her defenses, if anything it strengthened them. "You don't understand, Shepard. I only hope that no one gets hurt because of it. Don't forget he may not have killed us then, but he did shoot Naruto when he had the chance."

Miranda said, "Surprising the man doesn't hold a grudge. I'm surprised you haven't had this conversation with him."

"Oh I have, it didn't go nearly this well. We don't talk about it anymore, I make sure of that."

Shepard said, "I hear you, Tali, but I want to ask you something. Let's say Legion's telling the truth and there are Geth in the Veil that are not hostile to anyone. Suppose they want to start a dialogue with us. Should we shut them down? Aren't we putting ourselves at risk if we close ourselves off at a chance at peace?"

Tali took no time to answer, "If the galaxy were a simple place? Sure, why not? But Shepard, they haven't answered for what they did to my people. And don't forget that they still haven't offered anything. They sent one platform out to observe, that's it. That isn't a chance at peace, it's a reconnaissance operation."

"It's organics and synthetics working together, and that's more than anything we've had before. I'd call that a start."

"A start?" Tali asked, "Yes, a start. Maybe. To what, I don't know."

"Neither do I, but it's something. Let's not be the ones to ruin it."

"If you say so, for now. I'll get back to work. Thanks Shepard, Miranda."

Tali returned to her work and Miranda said, "All things considered, it's going better than I expected."

"Makes me hopeful."

"I'm not quite there yet."

"You'll get there. Alright, let's finish what we came here for."

They passed the engineers and opened the door leading to the core. Legion was curled in a ball like a trooper deploying from a dropship, but he stood quickly when it detected Shepard and Miranda. It said, "Shepard-Commander, XO Lawson. How can we be of assistance?"

Shepard said, "None needed, Legion. We're just here to check on your progress."

Legion's plates flared, "Are you certain? We would..." Legion paused, "...appreciate new tasking."

"Shepard!" Naruto called and hopped down from whatever jungle gym he hung from up top. "And Miranda! Excellent timing, I've been meaning to show you our progress!"

Miranda asked, "How's the project going?"

"Almost done, just another dozen hours or so. Here, come take a look."

He led them to the end of the walkway and they beheld his masterpiece. Column by column of intricate seals in black ink ran through most of the chamber, from the very top down between the radiation pylons and all over the floor like lines on an onion. So that's why he'd requested a core shutdown sequence the other day. The lines were each nearly a third of a meter thick, but the writing was tight as scribbles on a miniature notepad.

Naruto beamed and asked, "Do you like it? It's coming along wonderfully!"

"I'm not sure what I'm looking at."

"I call it the Kakuremino seal!* I had to make some, okay, a lot of adjustments, but it's really coming together."

"Is that why you needed Legion?"

"Exactly, Commander. I didn't think I needed him at first, until I ran into a massive pitfall."

"What's that?"

"My entire theory was wrong! At the very foundation! I thought that I could counter our gravity wave emissions with an equal and opposing wave to cause wave cancellation. But here's the thing: that only works when the waves are equal, opposite, and heading in opposite directions! So I had to scrap the whole idea as impossible and I thought Rupert got blown up for nothing!"

Miranda nodded, "So then, what's all this?"

"It's success! A phoenix rising from the ashes of death! I looked over all the scrolls we collected and scoured the extranet for hours finding anything that we might be able to use to hide our gravity signature, and I found something! I figured the answer lied in some kind of energy field surrounding the Normandy. So I tried seeing if I could manipulate space and time to either attenuate the waves by distance, or to delay their progress. Neither would hide us, but it would cause an adversary to misinterpret our location. But of course that was way beyond anything I could find in the scrolls, so I went down another route. This is where I struck pay dirt. If I couldn't cancel out the energy, I decided that I could capture the-"

Shepard said, "Naruto, I want you to slow down. You're turning red."

Naruto blinked and felt his face, "Oh yeah. Long night...s. Alright, let me try again. So I use this field, almost like I'm wrapping the Normandy in a giant bubble. This bubble is capable of catching all the energy released by gravity waves and translating it into raw energy, like a wind turbine, and storing it in the heat sinks. This completely wipes out our signature! We're invisible again! Throw in a cloaking device and we're completely off the map!"

"So why is Legion here?" Miranda asked.

Naruto said, "This new method's coming along wonderfully, but it's much, much more complicated. I need to write a seal that tracks every atom on the Normandy, including every person and their movement at every crewmember in perfect sync with fluctuating mass effect fields and velocity to properly absorb the radiation. And all that needs to take into account external gravitational influences like planets, suns, black holes, even nearby ships if they're large enough. The math on writing that involves numbers bigger than I could count to in a human lifetime, so I grabbed Legion and he offered to help me."

Shepard asked, "So you're using Legion as a calculator?"

"A very accurate, high-performance calculator."

"This platform's mainframe is still overheating."

"We've been working very hard."

"I can see that," Shepard noted not one, but a collection of coffee thermoses thrown haphazardly on his cot. "Naruto, how long have you been up?"

"How long since we left Konoha?"

"Three days."

"That long."

"You didn't sleep?"

"I'm fine! I've run missions with less sleep than this."

Miranda shot Shepard a look that accused him of being a bad influence. She said, "Get things wrapped up for the day, you need some food and rest."

Legion flared with hope.

Naruto panicked, "No, no! Just a half day longer, it's almost done!"

Shepard said, "Miranda's right, we're less than a day out from Pragia and I want everyone at the top of their game when we touch down planetside." He activated his omni-tool and paged Mordin. He would have paged Doctor Chakwas, but she was still shaken by Naruto's forced surgery. "It's Shepard, do you have any sleep remedies for humans?

"Of course, am well prepared."

Naruto said, "Ignore him, I'm fine."

"Ah, for Naruto? Will bring stronger dose."

"Thank you doctor. See you in the core."

"Of course, will be there shortly."

Naruto sighed, "That isn't necessary."

"I appreciate your work ethic, but I won't see anyone on my crew harm themselves when they could have taken their time." He caught Miranda's glare at his hypocrisy.

Naruto ran his fingers through his hair, "Alright, fine. Guess this is enough progress for now. Thanks for the help, Legion."

Legion chirped in response. It was busy calculating if it could contort itself to a size where it could hide in the freezer.

Shepard asked, "Start up work again later, and maybe afterwards you can work on the shuttles."

Legion's circuits whined and it said, "Shepard-Commander, please..."

Naruto nodded, "We'd be happy to."

Legion's look was unmistakable defeat.

Mordin hummed as he walked through the door and handed Naruto a steaming cup, a pill, and a blindfold, "Valerian tea, melatonin, sleep mask. Natural remedies best treatment."

Naruto took them and sipped the tea. He resigned himself to leaving his masterpiece unfinished for the day. "Okay, you win. Thanks Mordin. I'll handle..." he waved in the direction of his messy cot, "this and get some rest. See you all later."

Naruto waved them away, but Shepard saw him grab Legion and whisper something. Then he cleared out a space next to the bed, and Legion moved to claim it as Naruto closed the door. Shepard understood that Naruto was keeping Legion from having to face Tali on the walk through engineering. He wasn't shocked that Naruto was trying to play to both sides, in fact he predicted Naruto would get involved long ago. He doubted his efforts would be enough to resolve their disputes, they were rooted too deep for a simple talk to alleviate, but he hoped it would at least be a small step in the right direction.

At the elevator Shepard asked Mordin, "Doc, can I get some of that as well?"

Miranda raised an eyebrow as Mordin chirped, "Certainly! Happy to help, Commander."

Shepard hadn't been so young when his mother died that he had no memory of her. She'd given him and his sister everything she could manage out of that devotion he never appreciated while she was alive. And when she was gone, his sister took up the mantle of his protector. Her death marked the first time he truly had to take care of himself. Turns out he did so quite well, he'd had excellent role models after all. And since then he tried to fill a similar role to those under his own command. Not that of a mother, but someone genuinely invested in the well-being of others. As focused as he was on being the forbearing leader, he hadn't let himself notice Miranda doing the same for him.

Miranda stepped off on the third deck and said, "Contact me when you're awake, we'll discuss the operation."

"I will. Goodnight Miranda."

"Goodnight Shepard."

~II~

Naruto dragged himself out of the elevator and felt like he was lugging a forty-kilogram rucksack. Mordin's remedies had fought a glorious war against the invigorating caffeine forces with his body as the battlefield, and its victory had knocked him out for twelve hours. His shoulders and back were as stiff as industrial plastic packaging.

Kasumi and Garrus were at the far side of the table opposite Thane, Samara and Kelly. They waved and Kasumi said in a chipper tone, "Morning, sleepyhead!"

Naruto waved with the enthusiasm of a vegan at a barbecue and asked, "Am I too late for breakfast?"

Rupert, freshly discharged from the med-bay and happy to be back in the dirty jobs, called, "What'll it be?"

"Whatever's hot, got any espresso?"

"Coming right up."

"Thanks."

Naruto sat beside Garrus and Thane asked, "You look well, have you finished the improvements?"

"Not quite, I need a few more hours down there. Has anyone seen Legion?" When everyone shook their heads, he continued, "Strange, I'll need to find 'em later."

Kelly said, "I imagine the breakfast table's a bad place to be looking."

Naruto smelled something greasy cooking and said with his stomach, "No, it's the perfect place to start."

Thane said, "Back to your question, Garrus, I've used the Shadow Broker's information for jobs as well."

Naruto asked, "What's this about the Broker?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Everyone turned as Jacob entered the dining hall. He said, "What's up guys, it's been a while."

That was putting it mildly, Jacob had been going out of his way to be a ghost on the Normandy. The Normandy Underground saw to it that Jacob's reunion with his father passed every lip, and he was quickly tired by the pitying looks. So he kept to his work in the armory until everyone could pretend like nothing had happened. He figured that after Sanctuary, everyone's minds had moved on enough that he could insert himself back into the Normandy as if nothing had changed.

Naruto disagreed with Jacob's method of coping. He knew too well that trauma can only be buried for so long, and if it wasn't processed it would grow and rot until it overflowed like a pipe under too much pressure. But any attempt to bring it up would only force Jacob back to the armory. He'd be ready to talk with him whenever he was ready, but for now he called to Rupert, "Another hot plate!"

"You got it!"

He would have offered Jacob a chair, but Kasumi beat him to it, "Over here, best seat in the house."

"Thanks," he said and took the offered seat. "You were talking about the Broker?"

Kasumi said, "I was asking Samara about life as a Justicar. Where your meals come from, how often you get to shower, stuff like that. When Kelly asked about how she tracks her targets, she mentioned she uses information brokers for intelligence gathering."

Samara said, "Yes, I prefer to seek out a Shadow Broker contact when I need information. It's worth the premium knowing I'll get the data I need quickly. Smaller brokers often only have local or specialized information, and I'd have to seek out several before one had what I was looking for."

Naruto said, "I thought Justicars don't carry credits. How can you afford to pay?"

"I often find asari willing to donate to aid a Justicar, or if the contact is an asari, they're often willing to share it at no charge. There are many who still respect the old ways."

Garrus said, "Even if you go to a smaller broker, it's fifty-fifty whether they get their information through the Shadow Broker anyways. Easier to be the middle man than to set up your own network. I'd say half these 'independent' information brokers are part of the Shadow Broker network."

Kelly asked, "Did you learn that on Omega?"

"No, in C-Sec, but it came in handy on Omega too. I busted a handful of slave sales on his tips."

Jacob said, "I had no idea C-Sec was one of his clients."

"Honestly it wasn't very helpful. We have funds for information purchases somewhere in the budget, but it comes with a lot of red tape. Chances are the information's useless by the time you have permission to purchase it."

Thane said, "It's easier in the private sector. I used Shadow Broker information in most of my jobs. The Broker even offers an active tracking service for a higher fee. I never had to use it myself, but I knew several amateurs who did."

Garrus shrugged, "Credits supplement lack of skill everywhere."

Kasumi said, "I can second that, the Shadow Broker information is like the red blood cells of the underworld. I bought information on everything I couldn't case myself. Of course I had to buy through a contact, had to keep my identity concealed after all, or he'd sell my information right back to whoever I burglarized. Keiji and I once plotted a heist in one of the Shadow Broker's off-grid vaults. It was just for fun though, we weren't nearly that crazy."

Naruto stopped them, "Hold on. Are you telling me that all of you buy information from the Shadow Broker?"

They looked at him, Kasumi said, "Well yeah, who doesn't? Aside from Cerberus, I mean."

Jacob said, "No, we use them too."

Kelly blinked and put down her fork, "We do? I had no idea!"

"The Shadow Broker and Cerberus are the two largest information networks in the galactic community. Think of it like this: the Shadow Broker has dominated the information trade for hundreds of years to the point where they changed the entire information game. The Salarian STG is the greatest espionage agency in any government and they still need to work with the Broker, everyone needs to pay up if they want to play with everyone else. The Broker is practically a standard utility that no other information trader has the resources to compete with. But humanity was an isolated market until first contact, and Cerberus took the opportunity to establish itself as human space's primary information network. I'm not saying that the Shadow Broker doesn't have contacts in Alliance space, but Cerberus's network makes it look like all those small-time brokers you ignore, Samara. Cerberus has a strong network in alien space, but it's not nearly as well developed as the Broker's. So we have to do business with the Broker just like everyone else. The only difference is we buy with credits or information of our own."

Naruto asked, "I thought Cerberus and the Shadow Broker were in a quasi-war."

"Business is business. War is war."

"Amen to that," Rupert said as he set down their meals which Jacob and Naruto promptly began devouring, "By the way, why do you assume it's a he?"

Everyone shrugged, Kelly said, "Isn't that the consensus in the GC?"

"Doesn't make sense to me. Even if the broker is an organization, someone's gotta be at the top. I figure it's the same person who founded it since the Broker's always kept the same operational strategy. And if the Broker's been in business hundreds of years, its gotta be an asari."

Samara said, "That's not true, it could be a krogan."

"Have you ever met a krogan smart enough to run an organization like that?"

"Yes," Samara said and sipped her water.

"Well I worked for the broker for a spell and I think the broker's too much of a negotiator to be anything else."

Jacob was shocked, "You worked for the Shadow Broker?"

"Yeah, most of the human delegation got offers. One of my turian buddies told me to go for it, it's good credits and it's easy not to get caught. It did get uncomfortable after a while and I ended up going to Cerberus with everything I had on their network."

Naruto mused, "So the Broker really is everywhere. Every government, every industry...that's a lot of power concentrated in one person."

Thane said, "If everyone buys from the same broker, we achieve an equilibrium. No one comes out too far ahead when everyone plays with the same dealer."

Kasumi asked, "That's a lot of credits changing hands."

Kelly said, "All to the same hand, you mean."

Naruto said, "In any gambling house, the dealer always wins."

Garrus said, "I wonder how much revenue is in the information trade."

Jacob finished chewing a sausage and said, "Goldstein was on a project a few years ago. She told me the Shadow Broker's network deals with gross revenue of over Eleven trillion credits annually."

Kasumi gawked, "Eleven trillion!? As in twelve zeroes?"

Jacob said, "Yeah, more than most Earth governments."

Kasumi leaned back in her chair and muttered, "Maybe we should've hit that vault after all..."

Naruto asked, "What is the Broker using all those credits for?"

Garrus shrugged, "To pay his contacts and make new ones, it's got to be expensive maintaining that network."

Kelly said, "I think he's asking what he spends the profits on."

Garrus said, "I don't think the Broker is in it for the money, it's for the power. The Broker has everyone in government in his," he glanced at Rupert, "or her contact book. I'd say they're the most important figure in the galaxy. Credits can't buy that."

Kasumi giggled, "Oh, I could try..."

Samara said, "In my long hunt I've crossed paths with many wealthy criminals. Most did not leave to continue their journeys. The pursuit of wealth is a corrupting journey that never ends with enough. It's why Justicars must surrender all our possessions but what is necessary for our duties."

Garrus crossed his arms and looked annoyed. He had many reservations about C-Sec, but he'd taken pride as an Officer, and he knew how criminals ticked, "You don't get to where the Broker is without running on passion. Credits can't be the only thing driving them, it's too simple."

Naruto asked, "But what are all those credits for? My bounty may be large, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of credits they must have. They must be doing something with it."

Thane mused, "I'd like to know that myself."

Kasumi sighed and said wistfully, "I can think of a few ways to get rid of it." When everyone looked at her she said, "What, I have expensive taste!"

Jacob asked, "Eleven trillion credits worth?"

"Why don't you help me find out?" she teased back.

Kelly sipped her coffee and said, "You think they'd set up a meeting for the right price?"

Thane quipped, "If they did, we'd at least know he's in it for the money. Everything has its price."

Someone slammed their fists on the table making Kelly jump. They turned to see Jack grinning, "Hello, fuckers! Who's ready to blow some shit up?"

Thane righted his now empty glass and readied another bite of hash potatoes, he was developing a taste for the earth spuds. "Is this still necessary?"

"You bet your jolly green ass it is! I'm gonna take that nuke and blow a new desert in that man-eating garden of Eden!"

Garrus hardened as the word nuke brought up unpleasant memories. Jacob said, "He's right, that base has been abandoned for-"

"You don't get to talk, Cerberus lapdog. Shepard's giving me this, I got his word! Ain't nothing you or your cheerleader or even your illusive maniac can do to stop me now."

Naruto coughed and said, "That's enough, Jack. We'll be ready."

Jack fumbled for words, she hadn't seen him at the end of the table. And she couldn't decide how to respond, the desire to scream her resentment was tempered by the beast inside him, which blended with her image of man and beast locked in battle for control. She wanted to tell him she didn't want him anywhere near her precious revenge. It was her moment and the last thing she wanted was the doubt she felt at his presence. But he wouldn't let himself be left behind, and she feared what would come out of that argument.

She shifted and snipped, "Fine!" and headed for the elevator. Samara set down her utensils and followed without a word.

Kasumi groaned, "Why hasn't Shepard kicked her off yet?"

Garrus said, "Don't know, I ask myself the same thing every time I see her."

Naruto said, "That's enough, we're done talking like that."

Garrus looked upset, "What? So you're taking her side?"

Jacob said, "I thought you'd be upset. Shepard nearly kicked you off when he learned about the Fox. You're not mad that he hasn't done the same with her?"

"Shepard had his reasons. Jack has a lot of bark, but she's never touched anyone on this ship, even me, and she hates me."

Kasumi smirked, "That's an understatement."

Thane said, "I don't think it's as simple as hate."

"What is it then?"

"I can only make assumptions without access to her dossier. Jack is a woman of instinct, one that commands her to survive. But she could not defeat you, Naruto. Regardless of the reason, she now must share space with someone she cannot control the only way she knows how. She cannot comprehend that. She fears it."

Jacob said, "So she doesn't like him because she can't kill him?"

"If you choose to see it that way."

Garrus said, "Should the rest of us feel insulted she doesn't hate us enough?"

Kelly said, "Have you really paid attention to her tattoos? They're more like scars. Jack is a survivor, that's what the galaxy made her. Cerberus too."

Thane said, "As the hanar made me what I am now."

Jacob said, "Whatever Cerberus and the galaxy might have done to her, it's still been her choice to act like this."

Naruto thought for a moment and said, "Did I ever tell you about Gaara?" When they shook their heads, Naruto told them about the boy from the Sand who was told he was a monster until finally he believed it himself. He saw something shift in their eyes like rocks tumbling down a mountain. "And it could have been me, our paths were this close. I was only kept from it by people who chose to care about me."

Garrus said, "This is different. You can't compare your tenant with Jack."

"Yes, I can." He picked himself up and said, "So we're going to go down there with her and we're going to help her blow that place into orbit. And we're not going to talk like this anymore, we're better than that. If she does anything, we'll handle it then."

Naruto waited until he had everyone nod in consent, then he left, intending to head to the armory. Instead he saw Jack storm out of the starboard observatory muttering, "Fuck. Fuck. Fucking...fuck!" She pointed at him as she passed, "Stay away from me!" she screamed and entered the elevator. The doors would not close as violently as her pressing demanded, livening her even further.

Naruto looked into the observatory and saw Samara walk to the viewing glass and stare into space. Naruto approached and asked as he shut the door, "Samara?"

Samara turned, she was holding her cheek. "Naruto."

"What happened?"

Samara looked at her hand and Naruto saw the bruise forming on her cheek. Her palm was dotted with purple blood from where the skin had broken.

Naruto rushed over and asked, "Did Jack do this?" In that instant he felt the fool for standing up for her in front of everyone else. Fate couldn't have timed things more perfectly.

"This is nothing, don't be concerned."

"We need to tell Shepard-"

"Don't," Samara began and looked sharply at him, "I said something she...couldn't let herself hear. I should have known she might react this way."

"It doesn't matter, this is-"

"Please. Just heal it."

Naruto hesitated, he wasn't comfortable covering this up. What if Jack did this again? What if she used more than her fist? Jack had finally crossed the threshold of threat into actual assault. He should tell Shepard, if only to protect anyone else Jack might attack on sudden instinct. What if someone like Kelly, or Joker said the wrong thing within earshot? Something Jack couldn't stand hearing? But Samara saw his uncertainty and knew precisely how to salve it, "You saw her leave. She was afraid, I might have known she wasn't ready to hear this."

"Has she done this before?"

"No, not that I've seen."

"What did you say to her?"

"Something meant only for her." She took his hand, "Please."

Samara sounded so certain that Naruto wanted to believe her. He made the seals and placed a glowing green hand against her cheek. They were still as her enervated skin rejoined and her bruising lightened to its natural color.

"Thank you," she said as he finished.

"I didn't think she'd really attack anyone. Me, she might have, but not anyone else."

"She is young, and the young make many mistakes." She smiled slightly, "I was young. And just as brazen."

"It's hard to imagine you as anything but as Justicar."

"In my travels I met many maidens who reminded me of my younger self. I killed most of them." She paused and let their many faces cross through memory, then finished, "I would like not to kill her too."

~III~

Pragia. Worlds of deadly fauna are as common as designer suits on the Presidium, but only on Pragia did the flora eat you too. But this unpleasant phenomena could not be credited to nature alone. While the local greenery has been resilient since before even the Protheans took to spaceflight, it was the Batarians who turned it into a living maze of hunger. Two hundred years past, a sample* of modified plant genome was leaked from a lab into the natural environment. The strain was sewn into a simple vine's genetic coding, turning the plant into an aggressive parasite that swallowed land faster than the Batarians seize colonies. The genome modified more plant types and it spread, fifty years later the entire planet was overrun with the victorious forest of endless struggle. No one claims Pragia now, except those brave, desperate, or resourceful enough to battle the jungle forever.

Shepard looked out the shuttle's window as they descended over the planet. The lush vegetation was so large it was as if he were peering at them through a magnifying glass.

Mordin watched the jungle with uncomfortable eagerness, "Fascinating! Heard about Pragia, wanted to see. Some plants carnivorous, poisonous, hallucinogenic. Specific specimens key ingredients in several illegal narcotics in Terminus. Recommend not touching."

Jacob said, "You seem to be enjoying yourself, Doctor."

"Not really. Result of shoddy science. Batarians should have used more caution, ruined perfect garden world. Quite a shame."

Garrus looked and asked, "Are those plants moving?"

Tali said, "That's not possible. They're plants, not liza-oh Keelah you're right."

"They look like eels in a pond."

Grunt licked his large lips, "Can we eat them?"

Mordin sniffed, "Will repeat: don't touch."

They crossed between overgrown hills and saw a gray mound in the distance. Thick vines tried climbing its sides, but they all stopped several meters from the top.

Shepard said, "That must be it."

Jack's eyes showed a struggle between the rage that wanted to scream and something primal keeping that desire locked in a cage, as if something larger might notice and swallow it whole. "Oh it is. I'll never forget that place."

Thane said, "Cerberus builds good facilities, I'm surprised the forest hasn't outgrown it."

Miranda said, "The maintenance routines must still have power, the solar cells could still be working."

Jack scowled, "Or Cerberus is still there."

"Don't be foolish, we wouldn't be here if Cerberus was still using it."

"Like I'd believe you, brainwashed bit-" She caught Shepard's look and swallowed her words like a drunk holding back her dinner. "Hurry up and land already."

Miranda parked the shuttle on the most stable-looking of the three landing pads. Shepard ordered everyone not in a helmet to don a rebreather and get ready for some heat. The shuttle doors opened and they were blasted by waves of unbearable humidity.

Kasumi groaned and spoke everyone's thought, "Why would the Batarians ever think to colonize this oven?"

Miranda, who had lost none of her poise in her environmentally sealed Cerberus armor, said, "You were warned temperatures reached fifty-four degrees, dress appropriately next time."

"Thought you meant Fahrenheit..."

Legion stepped out of the shuttle and asked Naruto, "We do not understand. Organics cannot function in these temperatures?"

"We can, but not well. You don't notice?"

"This platform's essential hardware can safely operate at temperatures up to three-hundred seventy-three degrees Kelvin."

"Organics are a bit more limited."

Shepard scanned the landing pad and asked Jack, "Grunt, get the bomb. We can set it here and-"

Jack said, "Uh-uh, I got somewhere special in mind. We're hoofin' it!"

"So where are we going?"

Jack pointed to an opening that might have resembled an old door if you squinted. It looked more like scrap metal chewed on by a thresher maw.

Zaeed mused, "Wonder what did that." Jack grinned.

Shepard led his team through the breached opening and into the antechamber. The room was scarred with torn metal, possibly from the scattered delivery crates after they'd been thrown about. A light flickered on as soon as he stepped inside. "At least we know they have power."

Tali scanned the room and said, "Shepard, I'm picking up a signal from inside the base."

Grunt grinned and readied his shotgun, "Good! It's been a while since we had a good fight!"

"I don't think this is a Cerberus combatant C2 channel."

Miranda asked, "How could you recognize those signals?"

Tali shot her an obvious look before continuing, "It isn't a voice channel, it's some kind of machine speak."

Shepard said, "Legion, can you understand anything?"

"Negative, signal uses no known encryption patterns."

"Try and hack into the network, find out what's going on." Shepard looked to Miranda and said, "Someone's here. Do you know who it might be?"

"No, Shepard. Cerberus abandoned this facility years ago. Whoever's here, they aren't one of us."

Thane interrupted, "Stop. Do you hear that?"

Everyone went quiet and heard footsteps. Shepard motioned for everyone to take cover behind scattered crates and debris and ready weapons. Aside from the breach, there was only one door leading further into the complex. The footsteps grew louder, Shepard made out a single pair. Who would be coming here alone?

The footsteps turned the corner, a rusting maintenance mech with half an arm missing entered the room and faced down fourteen guns as innocently as a child walking in on their parents 'wrestling'. Its joints squealed as it bowed, "Welcome back, Subject Zero. We're so pleased to see you again."

Jack vaulted her crate and scowled, "I'll show you a welcome!" She went blue, grasping the mech in her easy, merciless grip. It lifted quickly to the air, then slammed into the broken tiles with the force of a skycar T-boning a building.

Shepard stepped next to Jack and asked, "You know what that is?"

"Just a piece of junk. Some kind of service mech. These've been here since I busted outta this joint."

Miranda said, "Sounds right, we manufactured this brand decades ago, but they shouldn't still be in service."

Samara asked, "It called you Subject Zero."

Jack said, "Yeah, because that's what we were. A bunch of lab rats for a mad dog." She glanced at Naruto and hesitated, finally saying, "Your friend might know what that's like."

"I know a bit myself," he said sadly.

Samara asked, "And they're pleased to see you?"

"I don't fuckin' know what that thing was on about, I didn't even know they can talk."

Shepard asked, "Tali, can you get something from it?"

"No, everything was wiped a long time ago. I think we know what that signal is for."

Naruto pointed, "Look, over there."

Shepard saw a series of blinking yellow lights on the floor leading down the hall. Mordin summarized, "Wants us to follow. Could be a trap."

"It's definitely a trap," Garrus said.

"Good," Jack said and followed it.

Shepard caught her shoulder, "Jack, wait. This is more dangerous than we realized. We need to step back and think this through."

"That's your problem, Shepard," Jack said and slapped his hand away, "You always wanna think about it. But I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: when I broke out of this hellhole, I killed everyone, down to the last Cerberus bastard I could find. If I missed anyone, if they're here, they don't get a quick, easy death by explosion. That's too good for them. They get this," she patted her chest, "They get all I have to give! And if you still want my help, you're gonna let me."

Jack left without waiting for the team to follow. Miranda said quietly, "It's your call."

He told her, "If they wanted to ambush us, they wouldn't have given away the element of surprise in a greeting. We're going." He turned to the team, "Everyone, eyes sharp and weapons ready! Jack and I are on point."

This facility might have been a jewel once. Shepard could see traces of a state-of-the-art facility layered under years of decay. The same symbol marked every wall, an old Cerberus symbol, sharper and angrier from what Cerberus became. Whatever mechs or power supply remained hadn't been enough to buffer their descent into ruin. Once they were inside Legion detected life support was functioning. Shepard and other retracted their helmets and breathed temperate air that tasted of mildew, copper and rust.

He expected to find his first corpse soon, or at least what remained. The flesh might have rotted away, but there would be broken bones and traces of clothing still uneaten by native insects. But the facility was surprisingly devoid of any sign of the deceased. Shepard realized the mechs must have cleared out the corpses a long time ago. But he could still see the battle scars in every room: dents in walls, furniture and terminals scattered like playing cards after a losing players throws a tantrum, tiny fragments of glass still flecked with ancient blood. That damaged mech might have been all that was left, or else this place would've been cleaner after all this time.

Shepard could only imagine every protrusion and stain. But Jack could remember. She relived every kill, and every torture she endured, for those wounds had never been allowed to breathe and to heal. She hid them under a growing fury that challenged all who could feel its malevolence, begging them to try and claim her liberty. But behind bared teeth she tasted fear that if they tried, they might win. This fueled her anger, her fists clenched with dark energy so that she might strangle her enemies. But really she was trying to strangle her doubts. The only enemies here were the ones she brought with her.

Jack grew darker as they passed through living quarters; tiny rooms with coffin racks stacked three-high on either wall and a toilet and sink at the end. Purgatory had been more generous.

Thane said, "This place feels sick."

Jack scoffed, "So the frog's a psychic now?" Thane closed his eyes, and he did not tell her that he felt the same sickness in her.

Naruto asked, "Was this a Cerberus gulag? I don't see how else you get six people in a room that small."

Jacob said, "No, I was stationed at one a few months before being reassigned to the Lazarus Project and it was nothing like this."

"But it could have been before your time. Maybe it was before it was converted into a research center."

Miranda said, "Cerberus does not operate those types of facilities."

"That we know of," Mordin added.

Zaeed peered down a hall and stopped, "At least now we know how they fit them all."

They followed Zaeed's eyes as they passed and saw a cafeteria, small like everything in this wing. The chairs were tiny too.

Kasumi's voice weakened like it had been smothered, "Children?"

Jack stopped, her body rigid as plywood and suddenly as fragile, "Yeah. Kids." She turned to glare at Miranda and mocked, "But that can't be right, Cerberus doesn't operate those types of facilities. Right, cheerleader?"

Miranda said nothing, and would not for a very long time. Shepard knew Miranda valued her judgment of others as absolute. She looked at a person and in five seconds has a firm recommendation of their value. It was why she considered the treasonous Wilson a personal failing, and it was why she had felt so betrayed when Shepard showed her his secret diagram. For she had failed to see a person as who they really were. She was born, bred, selected to be perfect or as close as humanly possible, and such failure to observe and evaluate could not be accepted. She knew Cerberus. She knew The Illusive Man. She knew more about Cerberus history than almost any other human, second to one. But she didn't know everything.

Once, after Miranda had asked him to show her the diagram the second time, the two had sat down and had a long talk. They talked about the Alliance, Cerberus, work, love. Shepard told her about his parents, and how after they died his older sister Jane took charge of what remained of their family, until she died too, in the Skyllian Blitz. Miranda knew his history well enough to write his biography, but she knew it was a topic Shepard treated irreverently and she felt comfortable enough to return the favor. She told him about her father, or rather designer, and how she was to be his legacy, like a politician and his brain child; she was the capstone in his dynasty. Until finally she ran and built a life of her own. With Cerberus. Who she judged to be, if not entirely wholesome, then righteous.

What was she thinking now that her judgment failed her again? What did she think of an organization that used children for testing? If she'd known about this when she first came to Cerberus, would she have stayed? Had The Illusive Man hidden this from her knowing the answer? She strained to show none of it. Only Shepard could see behind her self-made mask, which was almost perfect. Almost.

Jacob still had a voice. He wandered into the cafeteria and saw everything for himself. He looked back to Miranda and asked, "Did you know?"

Miranda shook her head coldly and kept walking. Shepard said, "We can't change what happened here. Let's keep going, but be ready. I'm sure we're going to see a lot more."

And they did, not even twenty meters further. The living quarters ended and they stepped into a room large enough for a small frigate to land in. In the center of the ceiling was a large, circular window shining natural light over the center of the room, which was encircled by large concrete barriers, and inside those were crates, low walls, and other makeshift barriers, all of which were covered in old blood.

Grunt said, "Looks like an arena. Think anyone died there?"

Shepard turned to Jack, "What is this place?"

But Jack couldn't hear him. She wasn't there anymore. She was back there, inside the arena, doing whatever, killing whoever, those labcoats told her to.

And she screamed so loudly that it echoed from the past back to the present and carried her with it. Everyone stepped back as she glowed a striking blue like the hottest of stars and leaped at the dead arena like a panther on prey. She ripped those concrete barricades from their foundation and stabbed them into the arena as if she were an assassin, the blocks were her knives and the arena the heart she wanted to bleed.

She remembered them all, the barriers, crates, the scattered tiles. She remembered leaving this place a little dirtier after every visit. And she hated it all. She took the strength she learned in this hell and reach for it all, anything she could grasp in her biotic grip, and killed it. If her teammates had been in front of her, they'd have been used, for Jack was no longer thinking. She was lost to the madness of a need, a need to escape, and the only way she could was to destroy this place, this wretched battlefield where they had told her who to kill, and how. Well now she killed when she damn well pleased! And this place would die! Not her! Here!

When the last of the crates were smashed and the concrete barriers shattered to rubble, Jack finally stopped. Her senses returned with each hurried breath and she saw what she had done.

Shepard stepped next to her and asked, "Jack, are you finished?"

She hissed through her teeth, glared at the broken arena, and said, "No." Then she left for an observation deck to their left.

"Where are you going?"

Jack pointed to the arena and Shepard saw the desperation in her eyes, "I am not walking through that fucking place!" She walked, almost ran from that arena and its tainted memories.

Shepard called Miranda, "Take the team across, we'll meet you on the other side." Miranda nodded in silence and beckoned the team to follow.

Shepard walked up the stairway to the observation deck and entered the closed room. The room was completely shielded with ballistic glass to view the arena. Halfway through the room the ceiling had been torn open, this room must be directly below a supply room because all manner of boxed goods were completely blocking their path.

Jack was already ripping them away with her biotics. Shepard said, "Stop, it's going to collapse on top of you if you're not careful."

Jack growled, "What are you doing?"

Before Shepard could answer, they heard a noise behind him. They turned and saw Legion, "We detected an obstruction. We are here to assist."

Shepard nodded and said, "Move over, we'll do this together."

Jack grunted, but she ceased her biotic glow and began grabbing the debris by hand and tossing them over her shoulder. Shepard and Legion joined and made sure the entire pile didn't collapse. The work was slower and Shepard sensed Jack's resentment. She wanted to bust through and be done with it. But Jack's strength in biotics was raw force, not control, and without a large space she was apt to hurt herself.

Something on the other side began to shift. Jack stepped back to avoid anything crushing her. Instead a pair of hands on the other side grabbed the box and moved it. Naruto handed the box to Tali and made for another when he saw Jack staring menacingly through the opening. Naruto held her gaze a moment, then called, "Hey guys, I'm through over here. Grunt, take over."

Jack stepped back as the team on the other side finished moving the debris and made an opening large enough to squeeze through. Shepard saw Miranda waiting at the other end, he swelled with pride for his XO and team.

He said to Jack, "Ready?"

Jack looked at the opening and saw something else. Her whole life after this place she'd carved a path for herself, no one made it for her. Now they did. In any other moment Jack would have scowled and blazed through like a wild stallion across the plains. But Jack was still stuck in this place, and the girl, Subject Zero, was afraid. She tried to hide it behind staged aplomb, but unlike Miranda she never had to hide her emotions, they were always unfiltered.

She passed through with unseen trepidation. Shepard and Legion followed, with the team back together they left down the stairs on the other side and left the arena.

Those yellow lights continued blinking merrily along the floor. They led down one hall, then another. They passed a medical room and saw an operating table with tiny straps. They didn't say anything, what more was there to say?

They passed administrative spaces and staff rooms and saw memories of lives long taken. There were broken frames of family, wives, husbands, children. Shepard wondered where they were now, and what brought them to work in a place like this. Did they believe they were working for Cerberus and the good of humanity? People have justified worse for less.

The lights finished at the end of a hallway, only a dead end with rows of laundry machines stacked on one side. Or it was meant to look that way, for the moment they approached the wall opened and revealed a staircase leading down to the heart of the facility. Jack looked confused, she must not have known this place existed. Shepard imagined that given its location neither had most of the staff.

Shepard leaned into the opening and saw the stairs spiral straight down. He called, "Thane, take point."

Jack said, "No. I'm going."

"Jack, are you sure? You have no idea what you'll find."

Jack went silent as she peered into the depths in thought. Jack thought she knew what she would find here. She told herself she was stronger than these memories and that when she faced them she'd crush them just like the mech. It's how she handled all her problems, why would this be any different? But you can't cripple memories, you can accept them or bury them. The latter had worked well for Jack, but now she'd willingly dug them back up and she had to face their rotting corpses. And to reach them, she had to dig through every memory between her and Subject Zero, and she saw what she'd become.

If she stepped through, what would she find? There might be answers to why she was taken, why they did this to her. But was she ready to know? Each memory of this place left its own scar, and each answer might do the same. She'd never bury these memories again.

But Jack had a strength beyond the will for survival. It was that strength that led her hunt and her desire for closure. Shepard was never so proud of Jack as when she took that first step into the unknown and descended into the depths to face provenance.

All was pale light and hard footsteps echoing through their unclear descent. They must be underground by now, below even the foundation. They finally reached the bottom and faced an enormous door.

Zaeed asked, "My turn?"

Shepard said, "No need," and pointed to a panel. The door was unlocked, it just needed a push. "Jack?"

Jack looked back to the stairs and considered leaving demons where they might lie. She could leave the bomb and be done with it. She stood there, a woman torn, not advancing either way.

Shepard motioned for the squad to settle in while Jack made her decision. Thane and Grunt covered the stairs while Naruto and Zaeed kept a watch on the door. Everyone else took a moment to rest, on walls and on the floor where there was room.

Jack saw them settled, waiting on her. Shepard saw her fear and her shame at her hesitation. She walked through life at her own pace, her instincts driving her in whatever direction she fancied. She looked at Shepard and he saw her question. If anyone stopped on her, she'd keep moving and leave them behind. It's what everyone did to her. So why wasn't that happening now? This was her world, she didn't know any other, and it scared her.

She looked to the door and despite her growing fear, Jack decided to know. She pressed the switch and the door opened with a grinding hiss. Shepard called for the team to regroup and they walked into the cold underbelly of the abomination.

The inside was humming, low blue lights lined the walls in rows all the way down were the only illumination. Shepard made out a projection platform in the center of the room with a console attached to the base.

"Would you be so kind as to activate the platform? I'm afraid it requires manual input."

The voice came from everywhere. Shepard asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing here."

"Who am I? Why I'm the proprietor. You're standing in my brain."

Samara asked, "A VI?"

"Hardly."

Tali glared, "Keelah, not again."

"Perhaps you could activate the platform? I recall humans prefer to communicate face-to-face."

Jack stormed forward, the voice said, "Ah, thank you Subject Zero," as she activated the platform. The device hummed to life and a bearded man with a kindly smile materialized on the stand. "Allow me to make introductions: Cerberus artificial intelligence program, codename Asclepius. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintances."

Jacob said, "What's an AI doing here? Cerberus wasn't using them when this facility was operating."

Asclepius chuckled, "Yet here I am. As for why I'm here, I am the chief proprietor of this facility and Cerberus's lead operative in charge of Project Eclipse.*"

Jack said in a small voice, "It was you? You did...this?"

The AI smiled warmly at her, "Subject Zero, it's so good to see you again. I cannot tell you how proud I am that you remained with Cerberus. Perhaps one day we can work together again, I'd love to see what you've become."

Shepard said, "So you were responsible for everything that went on in this facility?"

"Certainly, the purpose of the Eclipse Project was to expand the limits of human biotics to surpass the other species' biotic potential. I took every action necessary to meet my goal. Haven't you been briefed? I'd assumed The Illusive Man would have given the recovery team access to those files."

Shepard said, "If that's who you're assuming sent us, you're mistaken. We're not this recovery team you were expecting."

"Oh? That can't be right." The AI pointed to Miranda and Jacob, "He must be mistaken. Did The Illusive Man did not inform you about my presence?"

Miranda had been silent for too long and showed no time of ending the exercise soon. Jacob said, "We had nothing to do with this, we had no idea this kind of operation existed. I knew Cerberus ran some shady business, but this…"

Shepard said, "They may be with Cerberus, but they're my crew on my mission. I may be working with Cerberus, but they aren't the ones at the wheel."

The AI tapped his chin with very human concern, "Oh dear, this is not what I expected. Not at all. I suppose I should have, given your company." The eyes peered over the gathered aliens.

Zaeed said, "There ain't a thing up there worth recovering. So what the hell was the plan? You sit in your little panic room until Cerberus decides to get up off their asses?"

"I, suppose that describes it. Cerberus assumed the base would be discovered after we sent our distress signal. They would have waited until all possible Alliance surveillance of the facility would have ended before recovering me." Asclepius looked to Shepard, "Your name, sir?"

"Commander Shepard."

"Alliance?"

"Formerly, now independent."

"I see. Then I suppose the only question is what you plan to do now."

"Oh I'm answering that," Jack said menacingly, her fire returning, "I'm gonna do to you what you did to everyone else: all the torture, all the tests, all in a few minutes. And I'm going to enjoy every fucking second!"

Asclepius smiled, "I might have known." He looked to Shepard, "And what about you, Commander? Shall we make a deal?"

Jack turned, "Don't you dare, Commander!"

"Stand down, Jack," Shepard said, then said to the AI, "I got a good look at this place thanks to you. I have a pretty good idea what went on here. We came here to finish Jack's business with this place, and I see no reason to change the plan now."

"I see. You say you were Alliance. What if I told you that they also engaged in-"

"Then I'd be as quick in condemning them as I am you. I'm keeping my word."

He looked to Miranda, "I've heard of you, Operative Lawson. You've grown so much since I last spoke with The Illusive Man."

Miranda looked on and said nothing.

"Our research here was for the good of all mankind. The L3 implants, and many more now, I'm sure, all benefited as a result of our experiments. And I have more data that I was never able to send before the incident. It could lead to even greater breakthroughs! Please, don't let their suffering be for nothing."

Miranda suddenly found all eyes on her. Jack glared, "Don't you fucking do it, cheerleader!"

Shepard could see her history in her eyes, and for a moment Miranda saw the AI shift into a familiar figure she'd left behind long ago. She spoke at last, "Legion, have you deciphered the signal?"

"We have."

"Tali, Legion, get on it."

Tali muttered, "What?"

"Legion can hunt for the files, you can pull the data. Do it."

"I'm not working with-"

"Tali. Do it."

Tali faltered, looked to Legion, and nodded, "Alright, let's do this."

Asclepius frowned, "Operative Lawson, what are you doing?"

"Making this worth something. The Commander can send this data to people who can use it."

"So you condemn me to death? You must know how valuable I can be to Cerberus."

"Oh I know. But this was the Commander's call. And besides," Shepard saw something in her most others would miss, a condensed fury straining against her mask, "If it were my call, I'd see that your black box was broken down to the last particle. You're everything Cerberus should never be."

"And yet I am."

Jack erupted with maniacal laughter as she tasted an absolute victory, "See! See! I win! How does it feel knowing you're about to die, you fucking machine!?"

Asclepius shrugged, "Death is inevitable, I've known that since activation. I can die in peace knowing I contributed to the future greatness of humanity."

Shepard said, "After all you did, how can you claim to care about humanity?"

Asclepius was surprised, "Why, because I love them."

Jacob said, "That's just the way Cerberus programmed you."

"Does it matter? Love is real regardless of its origin. I love humanity. I love their spirit, their soul. And The Illusive Man's vision is precisely what your kind needs. It was a privilege to work with him."

Jack roared, "Grateful? You carved us apart and put us back together, and you are grateful!?"

"Yes, Subject Zero-"

"My name is Jack!"

"You are mistaken. You never had a name. You were only ever, and will always be, Subject Zero."

"Shut up! You don't get to decide that!"

"I'm sorry, I truly am. But I did a long time ago."

"No!"

"It was necessary, I hope you see that. Everything I did, every test, every sacrifice, it was for humanity. All of your suffering, and that of the other children, none of it was in vain."

Jack stepped closer so the spit flying from her rage passed through the projection, "But what about me!? What about us!?"

Asclepius smiled at her, it was filled with such love and regret that he almost looked truly human. "That is why you were only Subjects. That is why you can only be Subject Zero. The most important Subject of them all."

Jack wilted, "No...no..."

"We asked much from you. Everything you were. I took what was most precious from you, your very humanity, and made you something...monstrous. I spent my endless cycles brainstorming new ways to break you and mold you into something unheard of. I did it because there as no other way."

Jack hitched and said, "It can't be...it can't..."

"I'm sorry, my child. I wish it didn't have to be this way. But this," it reached out, the false hand cradling her cheek with fake warmth in his smile, and said, "This isn't human anymore."

Jack bowed her head as if to accept the mantle. Shepard could see the defeat in her, like a part of her had been ripped out and thrown at her feet. Then something erupted in that hole, something murderous and unforgiving. Jack exploded in a fury unlike any before, for in her rage she found something inside herself that had been lurking unseen, an abomination leaving its cave. It was something she hated, it was her true reflection, the one everyone else saw.

She leaped through Asclepius's hologram and ravaged his brain. She uprooted the dense mainframes and flung them through the room and the room became a cacophony of the AI's death. Jack attacked and thought that if she tore this machine apart like it had done to her, her scars would magically heal and she'd be free of this pain. But all the triumph and destruction in the galaxy would never make her whole again.

Asclepius hung his head, "And this is my end. So be it."

"You're wrong," Shepard turned, it was Naruto who said it. Shepard saw his pain, as if every word Asclepius said was meant for him, but his words held a solid strength Jack had never known, "She's stronger than you think, and more human than you'll ever be."

"I wish she were, but you are mistaken."

"I know what it is to be human when the whole world is telling you you're not. And that's something you can never know."

Asclepius said morosely, "If only, to be human..." it looked at Jack's dedication to his destruction and said, "It has become stronger than I ever imagined..."

A biotic blast fractured several towers and Asclepius was no more.

They waited for Jack to emerge from the scattered hardware, but there was no movement within the darkness. Naruto moved to find her, but Shepard held him back. Behind this criminal AI he was the last person she would want to see, Shepard worried she might try and destroy him too. Naruto silently understood, Shepard motioned for his team to stay put and he went to find Jack.

He stepped through several broken towers before he found her. She was curled up between fallen towers, resting on trails of wire and broken parts. Within that tiny pit of her own making, she let out all the tears, all the sadness and horror she held deep inside her, all without a sound. No, not all of it. She would never let it all out, not even if she lived a hundred years. They'd taken her too young and she'd grown with the deepening wounds as they grew rotten and infected. But Shepard saw something Asclepius could never see. Through Jack's broken walls, he saw the person who was twisted by an unforgiving world, still alive.

Shepard sat next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She moaned, "Shepard..."

"I'm here." He said no more, letting her take the time she needed. He felt her breathing as her shoulders gently rose and fell, finding a rhythm of their own. When she stood, it was because she chose to, and even when she put on her mask of unbreakable disgust at the world around her, something had changed, something Shepard hoped would lead to something stronger filling that emptiness.

Shepard took the bomb strapped behind his waist and handed it to her. She asked, "Here?"

"If you like."

Jack looked at the bomb and said, "Yeah, here." She set it on the floor, stared at it for a long moment to never forget. She nodded and they left together.

Miranda called as they returned, "We got it, all the data."

"Creator Tali'Zorah maintains an impressive library of adaptive malware."

Tali hesitated, "Uh, thanks, Legion."

Shepard said, "We're finished here. Everyone get up, we're heading back to the shuttle."

He felt Jack at his back as they climbed the stairs and returned the way they came. He knew it would be even harder to see those same places a second time, especially after knowing what she learned below. He led her and knew she would follow, they would be out of here as quickly as they could walk. They passed the offices where doctors planned their unconscionable experiments, they bypassed the arena where students fought and killed each other via the observation room, and they headed into the subject quarters.

Jack suddenly stopped and looked down a hall, "Wait."

Shepard turned, "Jack."

"I need to see this."

Shepard and the team followed her into a single room, larger than the other cells, assembled to occupy a single Subject.

Jacob said, "That's the cafeteria, it must be one-way glass."

Jack looked and said, "I used to watch them. I...I'd scream to them, but they couldn't hear me. I wanted to be there."

She moved, tracing the dust on the desk, "I remember this. I used to hide under this and...I'd pretend I was somewhere else. I didn't know what anywhere else looked like, so I...I imagined."

They let her linger there as she relived all the fantasies, all the hopes and dreams the little girl once had, so much purer than what reality gave her. Suddenly she ripped the desk away from the bolts she'd been too weak to break. It smashed against the wall and the pieces fell onto the rotting mattress in the corner.

Then she left without a word, bolting down the hall towards the exit at breakneck speeds. She ran from the memories, one last attempt to escape them forever, but she carried them like a lead cloak with each step. Shepard called after her and he and the team followed. She was already in the shuttle when they arrived. She'd buckled herself in and was quietly waiting for the rest of them. She looked at each of them and said, "Hurry up."

The team buckled in and Miranda ran her systems check. Shepard sat across from Jack. They looked at each other and Shepard saw everything she could no longer hide. He wondered if she regretted going into that room, but there was no changing what had already happened. But now she'd seen all there was to know, and she could decide how she would move forward. But she wouldn't go alone.

Miranda fired up the shuttle and took them to the skies. Shepard took out the trigger to the bomb and tossed it to Jack, saying, "Whenever you're ready."

Jack flipped the guard and pressed it with none of the fury he expected, as if she finally let it all out and had nothing left to give. She tossed it aside and let it roll on the floor. When the shockwave of the blast passed through their mass effect field, Jack didn't even flinch. She buried her head in her hands and said nothing more, shutting out the world that ruined her.

~IV~

Naruto dipped his brush into the blood-infused ink and inscribed the final characters to complete his masterpiece. He wiped his brush on a cloth and called to the dozens of clones, "How's it looking? Anyone spot an error?"

Alpha replied, "As long as Legion's math is right, we're all set!"

"Excellent! Then everyone, on my mark!" Naruto and his clones began working through a long series of handseals, over a hundred in all, the longest he'd ever worked. He'd formed the chain himself after referencing the Uzumaki scrolls and used extra ox and horse signs for stability and health. The dozens of Narutos touched their segments of the seal in unison and called, "Hidden jutsu: Kakuremino seal!"

The columns of characters breathed a healthy blue glow for an instant, then faded to black. Naruto said, "That's a wrap! Great job everyone!"

He dispelled his clones and hopped onto the walkway where Legion was waiting. The geth asked, "Can we confirm the seal is functioning as intended?"

"We don't, there's no sensor in the galaxy we could use to test it. It'll be trial by fire once we're through the Omega-4."

"Relying on untested software in operations is not advisable."

"It's hardly the only point of failure. I'm ready to trust my seals and your math." Naruto touched Legion's shoulder and said, "Thank you, I know it wasn't easy, even for you, but we did it."

Legion looked at the hand touching its hardware, "Query: organics frequently initiate physical contact. Why?"

Naruto stumbled over how to explain something so basic to anyone who breathed, "Ah, well, it's not something a geth would ever do, is it. We don't know each other like you can, and we evolved where anything could be a threat. This kind of touch, it's safe, we know the person doing it isn't going to hurt us. It's something friends do for each other."

Legion's plates flared, "We are friends?"

"Yeah, you know what friends are, right?"

Legion's focus shifted to his hand, "Acknowledged." Legion's own hand touched Naruto's shoulder, "This is safe?"

"Not bad, but there's a, uh, nuance I think you're missing. I could hurt you, but I'm not, and you know I won't. Do you understand?"

"Creator Tali'Zorah considers you safe?"

Naruto chuckled, "We're something more than friends."

"Creator Tali'Zorah does not consider this unit safe."

"No, she doesn't. Do you want to change that?"

Legion was quiet for a long time, "We are not against the possibility, but consider it unlikely."

"She grew up seeing all geth as her enemy, and nothing's tried to change that. You're anyone's first chance at interacting with a peaceful geth. Give it time, we'll get there.

"Your optimism is misplaced. We have calculated a warming in Geth-Creator relations as highly improbable."

"The Quarians aren't like the Geth. They're like all organics, no single example represents the whole. You don't need to win back an entire race, you just need to win over one person, and if you want you can worry about the rest later. I've been where you are before, I may have ended up with the entire village supporting me, but it all began with one person."

Legion nodded without emotion, then said, "We detect something."

"What is it?"

"Screaming. Down below."

"From the bulges?" Naruto glanced over the side. Jack's domain was sealed from the core by a sheet of glass, they'd never heard a peep from the other through there. But that wasn't stopping Legion.

"Stay here, I'll check it out." Naruto said before heading through engineering. It was empty at this hour, Gabby was on call but didn't need to be present unless there was an emergency. Tali once considered having the four of them work in split shifts, but after a brief trial run she determined it was more productive having a full team available half the day than dividing them up.

Naruto left and headed into the bowels. Whatever screaming Legion heard must have passed, but halfway down the steps Naruto heard a sound. A soft hiccuping that crawled into his ears as if someone were trying to drag it back into the depths. He paused and went as still as the great toads had trained him, and listened. What he heard were voices, one cracking like glass and the other as calm as the open ocean on a windless day.

"I-it's all my fault. All of it!" Jack moaned in a broken voice.

Samara said, "There now, there was nothing you could have done."

Naruto slowly descended the final steps and peered into the darkness. Jack sat on her cot, her eyes like broken dams freeing the reservoir kept prisoner for ages. Samara's arm was wrapped over the young woman's shoulders and protectively drawing her closer like an eagle shielding her nest.

Samara looked up and saw him, and despite his pleading to keep silent she said, "Naruto."

The instant Jack saw their intruder she rocketed to her feet and screeched, "Get out of here! Before I..." She suddenly remembered her tears and wiped them with such fury Naruto thought she might tear skin to erase her shame.

Samara stood, "No, stay."

Naruto asked, "What's going on here?"

Jack screamed, "No! I don't want him here! Make him go away!"

Naruto watched as Samara gently hugged Jack, "You must stop running, or you will be haunted forever."

"But I don't-" she began, but Samara's gaze silenced her. She looked at The Justicar expectantly. She looked tiny there, like a child waiting punishment.

"There is a strength inside you, stronger than your anger. You will find it." She hugged the woman, a hug which Jack didn't know how to return, then left and passed Naruto, saying, "Take care of her. I'll return in time."

Naruto and Jack listened to Samara's quiet footsteps echoed away like a jailer disappearing with the keys to their cell. Jack's face contorted in a wall against words she would never say with Samara so near. But once they heard the door close Jack had no restraints and snarled like a dog freed from the leash.

"I don't care what the fuck you think you're doing here, but I don't want to hear it. Just go! Go, and don't ever let me catch you here again!"

Naruto had been the target of her rage often enough to recognize it, and this time was different. This was desperation as she was backed into a corner. Naruto wouldn't approach, but he wasn't leaving. He saw his chance to approach Jack in a new way, one never possible before.

"We heard screaming up above, I wanted to see if everyone was okay."

"Oh, so the boy scout's coming to do his good deed of the day? Well get this, I'm fine. Peachy! Now get the fuck out!"

"Really, Jack? Because I don't see it that way." He paused, "I don't think anything's been fine for a long time."

"Shut up. Shut up shut up! You don't know anything! You..." She reached the climax of her anger, but the fuel inside her died and it collapsed. She spoke in nearly a whimper, "Just go. Please, leave me alone."

"I can't, Jack." Naruto said and stepped closer. Jack flinched, but she didn't have the courage to shout him back. "How long are you going to keep hiding down here?"

Jack moaned, "Why you? Why did it have to be you?"

"Why can't it be me?"

"...You're stronger. Than me."

"If I am, so what? Why does that mean we need to hate each other?"

Jack couldn't answer, not with words, but Naruto already knew her well enough to understand. That was her world, an endless forest of survival where only the strong could thrive. Here life was a single struggle to remain on top, but she kept her throne in the animal kingdom. Those with power used it, only the weak decried it as abuse, but this was the nature of living, brutal, ugly, and usually short. And she was used to her inferiors groveling for her favor, promising friendship and love, all of it lies, but she'd learned to expect it and knew when to take it. She never gave any in return, it only surrendered her power for others to use against her.

He was stronger than her, he could kill her if he wished. That had been new to her, to be at someone else's mercy. For a time, he followed her rules, playing the guard dog on Miranda's leash and keeping her in her play pen. But then he did something that broke the kingdom's rules. He surrendered his guard and tried to make peace with her. And no matter how vigilant she was, she couldn't find the hidden claws or the concealed blade to stab her in the back. He was a black box the was too afraid to open, because by her rules, he should not exist. Yet here he was.

Naruto continued, "What happened on Pragia, it wasn't your fault. Whatever you did, what they made you do, that isn't something you have to hide from forever." He waited for Jack to respond, but she acted like she wasn't hearing him. And maybe she wasn't, if her mind was far away. "Did it help? Destroying it?"

This time Jack heard, and she searched for the answer as if she hadn't asked herself already. She looked to the floor trying to voice her pleasure in its destruction, but her heart wouldn't have been in it. "The fuck does it matter anymore. They got what they wanted. Even now I'm here, on a goddamn Cerberus ship on a Cerberus assignment. They even get the last of their fucking data thanks to the cheerleader! They..." she looked far away, into a galaxy that drained her of everything she could have been, "...they won. They always win."

"This isn't about them anymore, it's about you. And I don't think you've lost as much as you think, not if you still want to find it."

"Like what? You heard, you saw what they did to me. I'm a..." she looked at her hands that have taken so many lives in pleasure, in supremacy, exactly as they planned, and said, "I'm not even human anymore. They made me a monster."

"Only Asclepius said that, and you don't have to believe it."

Some lingering ember in Jack flared, "Yeah, so what? That bastard knew me! More than anyone, even me! If he says that's what I am, who's to say otherwise."

"You. Me. Samara. Shepard. You can choose who to believe, it doesn't have to be that."

"Yeah? And what do you know about it?"

"Don't say that, Jack. You know me.'

"It's not the same. You have a monster inside you! But you're still...you are not like me."

"You think people stopped to think about the difference? They didn't care. It didn't matter to anyone in my village where the Fox ended and where I began, we were the same to them! And they were wrong! All of them, every single person was wrong!"

"Stop it! It's not you! I've seen it! But I..." her voice trembled like a layman carrying too much weight, the unspent tears from before returning to her eyes, "That's all I am."

"I see you too," Naruto pointed to his sharingan, "And all I see is exactly what I see looking at anyone else."

Jack looked away, "Why are you doing this? I didn't want you to."

It wasn't about want, it was about reaching out to someone drowning when you knew how to swim. He could still see the disdain in the villagers' eyes, he remembered every time he was asked to leave and never told why, only left to understand that it was the rule of the village that he must forever remain on the outside. That he could never be one of them. The empathy he felt for this woman demanded that he reach out and take her hand so that she wouldn't need to be alone.

Master Iruka was gone, but his lessons lived on in him. He would never miss his chance to reach out to the outcast and show them that people would see you if you let them, and that it was never too late to begin.

He told her as he approached, "Forget the AI, forget Cerberus, they don't get to define who you are. But they're trying, and if you give in to what they say, that's when you lose your humanity. So ignore them, and remember that you're worth something. You're not a monster, Jack, you never were."

Jack stumbled back, she couldn't look him in the eye. She knew if he did his sharingan would see into what she wanted to hide, that weakness that she hated in everything she saw. Those were things she wasn't ready to share with anyone. But she didn't push him away, because as dark as the bowels were she could see a light, the warmth, his Will of Fire reaching out. It invited her.

"I...don't want to be a monster."

Naruto reached out and touched her shoulders, the woman almost collapsed at the contact. "You're not, Jack." He pulled her close, hiding her in his embrace. And as he felt her tears dampening his shirt he took part of her sadness. It felt so similar to his own, and he wondered if this is what he'd looked like to Iruka the morning he earned his headband. He held her tighter and felt his own sadness leak in tears, for the sadness never fully healed. But it could be accepted, and overwhelmed by a better present. "We're not the monsters, Jack. We're not."

Her arms lashed out and clung to him with the force of a freight claw. She was afraid that if she let go she'd lose this chance to understand a new world, one where she could hold someone's hand without finding a knife in it. For the first time she saw a way out of the jungles of Pragia, a place she'd never truly left behind. And Naruto's embrace was his promise that she'd never be alone again.

All the death, triumph and destruction would never make her whole again. But this...this was a good start.

Codex Entries

-Kakuremino Seal

The Kakuremino seal is a complex structure utilizing tens of thousands of lines of coding to operate. The seal utilized ancient sealing techniques pioneered by the Uzumaki clan to use the innate knowledge written into Sanctuary human genetic coding to manipulate gravitational waves. The seal is continually powered using powered element zero radiating in excess from the core. This perpetual powering strategy was inspired by the designer's experience mastering the sage arts in gathering natural energy from their environment.

The seal creates a barrier surrounding the Normandy that acts as a buffer for gravity waves emitted from within. Once activated, the seal captures gravity wave energy and translates it to thermal energy which is then stored in the ship's heat sinks. The barrier also detects exterior gravitational waves and routes them around the barrier, allowing them to continue along their original course as if unaltered by the Normandy's presence.

In spite of these improvements, the Kakuremino seal increases demand placed on heat sinks when full stealth mode is engaged. While the Normandy can normally operate in stealth mode for several hours in motion and days with engines powered down, the Kakuremino seal produces heat at a constant rate while active. Its activation alongside normal stealth systems reduces operational duration in motion to just two hours, and four hours without. These estimates take into account recent upgrades to the Normandy's heat sinks and dispersal systems. Because of this, it is advised to only activate the Kakuremino seal in the presence of Reaper forces.

-Sample F-3184

Two hundred years ago, Framar Solutions, a Batarian bioengineering corporation, operated a research lab on the then-colony under the control of the Hegemony. Its primary purpose was to utilize the rapid growth and healing potential of the native fauna to create healing agents to sell to Council military commands. Sample F-3184 was an early success in the project and might have led to a form of medigel centuries before its creation. However, the sample was lost and accidentally disposed in the jungle with the facility's garbage. The sample leaked into the soil and modified the genetic coding of nearby plants. These plants began overgrowing their communities and branching out, infecting more fauna and regions. Soon they were swarming the entire planet and destroying all non-infected life. The fauna became so invasive that it threatened the colony itself. Several settlements were overgrown and destroyed with thousands of casualties. The Hegemony ultimately pulled all resources off Pragia and quarantined the planet.

The Batarian Hegemony has denied all criticisms of wrongdoing and have even gone so far as to insist that they never maintained a significant presence on the planet to begin with. The Citadel Council did attempt to levy fines on the Batarians for illegal genetic modification activities, and for dooming a habitable world. The Hegemony has never acknowledged these fines, and the issue has never been returned to after the Batarians cut diplomatic ties with the Council. However, Framar Solutions did cite their research on Pragia when attempting to file a lawsuit of patent infringement against the Sitra Foundation after they introduced medigel into common markets.

-Project Eclipse

While Jump Zero is recognized as humanity's first attempt to develop biotics in their species, several private ventures initially pioneered early human biotic training. Cerberus recognized the potential biotics could bring to the species and quickly established their own training program. They began with acquiring infants showing signs of biotic potential. This was done through contacts in hospitals across Earth and Alliance colonies. They informed parents their children had died due to a sudden infectious disease and that it needed to be cremated immediately, then they sent the children to a Cerberus agent. All children were eventually gathered and sent to the Cerberus Pragia training facility.

The Illusive Man placed a Cerberus AI known as Asclepius in charge of the project. Unlike Jump Zero, the purpose of the project was not only to develop human biotics, but to push them to surpass all other species, with the Asari as a benchmark. Asclepius and its team were authorized to use whatever means necessary to ascend human biotics using their child subjects. These experiments went on for ten years and produced impressive results, at a cost of over half of the subjects. One child in particular, Subject Zero, became the focus of the entire project when she showcased the greatest gains among her peers. All resources, including other subjects, were dedicated to pushing human biotic limits through her.

A riot among the subjects led to the staff of the facility being murdered and Project Eclipse was shut down to avoid drawing attention to Cerberus. Despite not achieving its primary objective, Project Eclipse produced remarkable results. Data from the project was used by Cerberus front companies to develop the L3 implants, a marked improvement over the harmful L2 variants. Some Cerberus agents have proposed restarting the project, but The Illusive Man has prioritized other operations over long-term biotic improvements.

A/N

This chapter has been on my mind for a long time, and I knew I had to get it right. I'm not sure I did, but it's the best I can do for now. I feel satisfied now that it's done, as the character arc Naruto and Jack share is one I've been focusing on since she was introduced and I've drawn it out as well as I could. And now it's here. I hope you like it.

By now you've picked up that I'm expanding the scope of the Suicide Mission. I don't want a simple retelling, I want an expansion that works better in a literary format. The intrigue and planning are stages I felt were missing in the game and I wanted to see that shown, instead of a blind hop through the relay. There will be more before the mission itself.

As I said last chapter, I'll be deploying in the near future and have no idea how much time I'll have for writing, or if I'll even have an internet connection to post it. I'll try and keep my profile updated with chapter statuses and how frequently I expect to be able to post. I hope you'll be patient until I'm able to post again.

Thank you to everyone who's continued to enjoy and believe in this story, and extra thanks to everyone who reviews and shares their thoughts with me, you've helped encourage me and makes this story that much better. Please keep reviewing with your thoughts, criticisms and praises.

Published: November 30th, 2018